Wednesday, June 5, 2013

CEQA abuse: Not In My State Anymore

Not In My Backyard obstructionists who exploit loopholes in CEQA law to stop environmentally-friendly development projects over very trivial environmental concerns through the courts may soon face this:Not In My State Anymore.

Consider what is unfolding in Riverside County, where Friends of Riverside Hills, a small group of
NIMBY's, successfully stopped
the Metrolink Perris Valley Extension through a CEQA lawsuit, at least for the moment. The group
used little more than throw-to-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks trivialities
as genuine concerns in alleging that the project's environmental
documents violated CEQA
requirements. Here's a question for fair-minded individuals: Is the Perris Valley Line lawsuit really a case of a community fighting to protect its quality of life and the long term welfare of the environment,
or just another frivolous CEQA lawsuit that unreasonably hampers progress?

As mentioned, the Riverside County Transportation
Commission is
turning to state lawmakers for help in moving the project forward. Fortunately,
Senate Bill 731 provides more clarity on what constitutes a genuine
CEQA violation, gives preference to projects that logically improve the
environment and eliminates some of the more archaic and
counter-intuitive elements. The State
Senate unanimously
approved the bill on May 30 and SB 731 now awaits review by the State Assembly. Environmental law and unanimous legislative agreement are certainly not normal in the state legislature, but since 100% of the State Senate agrees that CEQA abuse is a problem, it may soon be Not in My State Anymore for NIMBY's abusing the law.

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Inland Empire Transit Talking Points blogs events and commentary on Inland Empire transportation events from The Transit Coalition's A Better Inland Empire project.
As the Inland Empire's grassroots transit advocacy group, The Transit Coalition's A Better Inland Empire project is dedicated to advocate for the development of a safe, fast, cost effective and environmentally sound multi-modal transportation network all around the Inland Empire and connecting regions powered by productive public transit agencies and a robust private market.

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